Sustainable Timescales
Will our intelligence prove to be too much of a “good” thing and turn us into evolution’s deadliest blunder, or will at least some of us learn to tuck back into our family, no longer hubristic enough to play at being gods?
Will our intelligence prove to be too much of a “good” thing and turn us into evolution’s deadliest blunder, or will at least some of us learn to tuck back into our family, no longer hubristic enough to play at being gods?
How does one revive the ancient water cycles that once richly greeted Valdivia and his conquistadors? Perhaps not surprisingly, in peering for the answer Carvallo looks back as much as forward, to techniques developed over 1,400 years ago by pre-Incan cultures to the north, in the Peruvian Andes.
The verdant beauty of the Green Mountain State is striking, but preserving its beauty is a struggle as the state’s fields and forests attract green of a different kind. The state’s revered rural landscapes represent potentially lucrative investments for developers.
If I only had one wish, it would be to spend more time with my sheep and less with my computer… because you can eat a leg of lamb with onions and cooked carrots… you can’t feed a nation on paper and computer components.
Is large-scale intra-specific warfare Homo sapiens’ condition or can our species strive to achieve global peace?
If global warming shuts down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is crucial for carrying heat from the tropics to the northern latitudes, how abrupt and severe would the climate changes be?
The COP28 text does not simply call for transitioning away from fossil fuels but rather stipulates that this transition must be “just, orderly, and equitable,” a much more challenging prospect.
You might think that an apparently harmless public good like a library would have no enemies. But in the age of Trump and his movement to Make America Grotesque Again, there turn out to be many.
There’s a sign on the door of the Capitol that says Congress Doesn’t Work Here Anymore. I think that’s a bit harsh. A more accurate description might be Congress barely works here anymore. After all, they are managing to keep the government open—at least until March.
That in this blighted landscape there are still places of settled beauty is a comfort: a chance to glimpse what went before and could be again.
The fight against borders and for freedom of movement needs to be part of a deeper social-ecological transformation that places global justice at its core.
One of them contends that there is no hope for the survival of civilization, regardless what we do; while the other thinks that humanity can get through this century of crises more or less intact, if it pulls together and behaves itself.